Nizels House

Nizels House

A large house of complex architectural development, possibly originating in the 18th century with early 19th-century extensions and alterations, followed by thorough early 20th-century remodelling, addition and refurbishment in two phases. The earliest parts are constructed in brick with blue headers; the early 20th-century west addition employs small red bricks with very fine joints. The roof is slate with brick stacks.

The house evolved in stages. The main block, which faces approximately east over the garden, forms the core of the early house and is rectangular on plan with two principal rooms facing east. Early 20th-century extensions were added to the rear (west) in the Queen Anne style, adding another principal room, with a further probably slightly later extension at the south end providing a large withdrawing room. The entrance is now positioned on the west side of the house, opening into a stair hall which gives access to all principal rooms. To the north, the main block is linked to a substantial double-depth service and nursery block, probably early 19th-century in origin but thoroughly refurbished in the early 20th century and partly rebuilt following a fire of approximately 1910. The Edwardian plan form, with all its fittings, remains remarkably intact.

The garden-facing east elevation is asymmetrical, comprising a 2:4:2:5 bay arrangement. Two bays belong to the single-storey Edwardian drawing room on the left, which features long 24-pane sashes. The adjoining main block is blind in the centre and rises to three storeys, with four long 24-pane sashes to the ground floor and four 12-pane sashes to the first floor, all with flat rubbed brick arches and green louvred sun shutters. This block is surmounted by a heavy Edwardian egg and dart cornice above a dentil frieze, which continues along the adjacent two-bay block to the right. This latter block is slightly set back and contains early 19th-century sash windows with segmental rubbed brick arches: two 16-pane sashes to the ground floor and two 8-pane and two 12-pane sashes to the first floor. The five-bay service and nursery block, set forward, adjoins at the far right and shows evidence of rebuilding at both ends. It is three storeys high, with the egg and dart moulding continuing under the eaves, 12-pane sashes with segmental rubbed brick arches to the ground and first floors, and two-light attic casements (one replaced with a sash) with louvred sun shutters. The cornice extends around the return of the service and nursery block but changes to plainer moulding on the rear elevation, marking the extent of the circa 1910 fire damage.

The west (entrance) elevation is dominated by a grand Edwardian facade at its centre, constructed in red brick on sandstone footings, comprising five bays with three central bays breaking forward under a gable containing a bull's eye window. The same egg and dart moulding and long 18-pane sashes feature here. To the right (south) of this is the Edwardian entrance, set within a deep projecting porch with a segmental arched roof. Paired outer doors below a Georgian-style fanlight lead to a flight of steps ascending into the house. To the left (north) is a probably early 19th-century four-bay facade serving the service and nursery block, featuring a hipped slate roof, sash windows and a ground-floor canted bay window. The south return of the house includes an incomplete loggia or verandah associated with the early 20th-century drawing room.

The interior is outstandingly complete and unspoiled in its early 20th-century character, preserving not only a substantial open-well stair with turned balusters and ramped handrail, joinery, plasterwork, chimney-pieces and panelling in the principal rooms, but also the Edwardian layout and numerous fittings in the service rooms, along with a fine set of contemporary baths, sinks and lavatories. Particularly unusual survivals include early 20th-century American wallpaper in the breakfast room, a horizontal blind to the glazed cupola over the stair, and a completely convincing sandstone-style render covering plastered brickwork in the entrance hall.

The house is recorded as having been a dower house to Somerhill in Capel parish in 1830. Complete Edwardian interiors in houses of this size are rare, and the building has group value with listed items in the Edwardian garden.